


in the middle of a city with a million strangers

by zimnokurw



Series: buddie by zimnokurw, unrelated one-shots [6]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Christopher Diaz is a National Treasure, Christopher Diaz is a Sweetheart, First Meetings, Protective Evan "Buck" Buckley, Tsunami (9-1-1 TV), but i tried not to give too much graphic descriptions??, eddie joined station six instead of 118 au, warnings are here for tsunami in case anyone is sensitive??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:22:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24391240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zimnokurw/pseuds/zimnokurw
Summary: “Don’t tell me to calm down!” Buck’s attention once again goes to the brunet Firefighter who saved Kyle. The man seems pissed and worried. He talks with someone on the phone and tries to keep his voice quiet, but he still managed to yell through the whisper.“¡Por el amor de Dios! My son is out there, somewhere.” he explains through gritted teeth to whoever is on the other side of the phone call. It’s an angry whisper. He runs a hand through his hair, sighing and trying to calm down, before continuing. “And this whole time I thought he was safe.” it’s not really the man’s fault, but Buck can understand his thinking. He gets why the man is so worried, even though he isn’t a father himself, and he unconsciously rubs Chris’ back with his right palm. “I should’ve been looking for him right now.” the Latino raises his voice a bit, most likely not even aware of that, while he emphasizes two last words of his sentence, and his voice wakes Christopher up.or;buck meets a lost boy at the santa monica pier, takes care of him during the tsunami, and then reunites him with his hot-ass latino firefighter dad at the va hospital.
Relationships: Christopher Diaz & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Series: buddie by zimnokurw, unrelated one-shots [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1759828
Comments: 8
Kudos: 566





	in the middle of a city with a million strangers

**Author's Note:**

> i love the idea of buck meeting lost christopher before tsunami and then taking care of him before eddie gets to them and our boys meet for the first time. the idea is absolutely not mine, but i wanted to take my shot and write something.
> 
> (another au from: me, to: y’all. in this everything is kinda the same, just eddie jointed station six instead of 118)

* * *

It doesn’t rain, but Buck feels like it does anyway. He’s just shielded under a roof, that’s why the raindrops can’t touch him personally. He’s sitting on a bunk bed, his back resting on a wall of the VA hospital, his legs stretched out, and his arms are full of an 8 years old boy. 

He’s not cold anymore. Christopher is curled up to him, hugging his chest with all strength he has left, his head resting in a crook of Buck’s neck. The man feels the warmth radiating from Chris’ warmed up body and sinking right in his own. It works both ways. And they are both still wrapped in one big thermal blanket. Buck’s not cold, but he feels the coldness around him. He feels it in a number of bodies in black body bags just outside of the emergency shelter, in the short-staffed and tired medics, and in the way people are coming up to the nurses, asking about their missing loved ones. Buck looks around, seeing all that caused by a natural disaster, and he feels cold.

He shivers and wants to rip the IV out of his arm, but knowing that he needs the dopamine drip they’re giving him, he swallows the uneasy feeling and looks down at the poor kid in his arms.

As if feeling his gaze, Christopher looks up. “I’m tired, Bucky.” he announces and Buck sees the exhaustion on his young face. He’s torn between letting the kid sleep and keeping him awake _just in case_ anything was to happen.

“I know, superman.” he sighs. “How about you take a quick nap and I’ll wake you up when your Daddy gets here?” he asks softly, rubbing the boys back with his right hand.

“M’kay.” Chris mutters and lies his head on Buck’s chest. He’s out like a light immediately and Buck raises his head up again, watching people around them.

Two Firefighters walk into the VA Hospital at that moment. A woman with long, blonde hair, holding her side, probably having broken ribs, and a Latino man with short, dark hair, helping her. They’re both soaked with water from the tsunami and their own sweat. They lean against the empty nurses’ station, probably waiting for a doctor to take a look at the hurt woman.

Then, Buck looks at the woman with her son sitting on a bunk bed next to her, holding the boy’s hand and assuring him that everything’s okay now. A nurse walks by them, with a bottle of water in her left hand and now Buck’s focus is on her. She’s obviously tired, not having a minute to sit down and rest. She passes the half-empty bottle to a doctor who just finished checking a patient and he gives the woman a sad but grateful smile. 

Buck sighs and lies his hand protectively on the back of Christopher’s head. He gently buries his fingers in the mop of brown, a bit wet at the moment curls and he plays with the boy’s hair as he thinks about everything that happened that day. 

_He was woken up by angry-Maddie, pulling his comforter off of him. The sun almost burned his eyes at first when he opened them, so he tried burying under the covers again. His older sister can be much scarier than burning eyes though, so he quit the fight rather quickly, waving a white flag in surrender and not even being ashamed to admit it. At this point Maddie was probably planning on finding a big pot and filling it with cold water as an alternative way to wake the blonde up._

_Buck got up then, but not without showing how much he doesn’t appreciate being woken up, and walked downstairs, leaving his beloved loft still in his pajamas and with a sour expression on his face, loudly announcing that_ he’s up, Maddie, you won, you can go now, _and thinking about getting back to bed as soon as the woman steps out of his apartment’s door._

_His sister just ignored him, not caring about whatever tantrum he wanted to throw. And that would make him even more annoyed, if not the fact that Maddie apparently made him coffee because there in the kitchen, in the middle of an empty table was standing a cup of fresh coffee._

_He reached for his drink quickly, thanking Melitta Bentz, a housewife from Germany who created the first drip coffee maker using a filter she made out of blotting paper (amazing woman), as he took the first sip of his coffee. Sweet and iced, the best way. He was enjoying his drink so much, distracted by the ice cubes melting in a hot, strong coffee that he didn’t fully register Maddie ordering him to get out of his apartment, to take a walk or even go to a stupid cinema and watch a movie with some people around him. The man was nodding his head, agreeing to anything, still too drowsy to really look at Maddie’s mouth and listen to whatever words are falling out of there._

_Buck finished his coffee and finally noticed his sister staring at him, most likely expecting a reply to her little rant as if Buck was listening. She sighed when she saw the clueless expression on his face. “I made you coffee but I’m not your maid, I’m not about to make you breakfast.” she repeated and Buck just nodded, because he didn’t even feel hungry and he wasn’t sure Maddie wouldn’t poison him out of anger at that moment. “You can buy yourself waffles or something like that when you go out.” the woman added, checking her watch, because she didn’t have a ladder truck dropped on her and she could still work, so she shouldn’t be late for her shift._

When I wha _– Buck’s mind wanted to ask, but he stopped himself at the last second because he didn’t feel like Maddie’s_ another _lecture now being a bit more awake and aware. He just grudgingly agreed to get out, see a few people that aren’t actors at the TV screen nor are from food delivery, and after rolling his eyes while he was saying_ pinky promise _, Maddie left, hurrying to work._

_Buck poured himself another coffee, dropping three ice cubes into the cup and taking the drink up the stairs back to the loft. He took a sip of his drink when he walked up and longingly looked at his unmade bed. He_ would _lie down just for another twenty minutes… but then he’d also fall asleep and Maddie_ would _probably somehow know about it. She’s freaky like that. So Buck just drank his coffee again, took two steps towards the bedside table, and after putting his cup there, he walked away to his closet._

_The blonde grabbed whatever clothes were there, not really thinking if they would look good on him, and took them to the bathroom to put them on after a quick shower._

_And because of that, thirty minutes later – he left his apartment in grey trousers, white tee, pink, casual shirt, and shoes that were standing closest to him when he was about to walk out of the door._

_He took his wallet, phone, and a chain of keys with himself, but remembering the doctor telling him to walk to avoid forming blood clots, he decided not to take a car and just go somewhere in a walking range._

_It turned out to be Santa Monica Pier. There are people there, there are a lot of places where he can eat breakfast, and there are benches in case he’ll decide to sit down on one of them and just enjoy the sun for the first time in the last few days._

_He got his pancakes pretty fast, seeing as there wasn’t a crowd of people because it’s school and work hours. He ate them, taking a selfie to send it to Maddie in case she was wondering whether he took her advice or got back to bed, and then he just took a walk towards the ocean._

_He stopped when he walked to the edge of the pier and noticed an older man painting a picture of a teenage girl posing him and flying a drone. Following the drone with his eyes, his gaze finally fell on a young boy in a yellow t-shirt with glasses and crutches, standing alone and looking around._

_He seemed lost, so Buck’s inner Firefighter kicked in immediately, and a second later he was kneeling in front of the boy but keeping his distance not to scare him._

_First, the kid announced that his dad told him not to talk with strangers. Buck had to assure him a few times that_ Yes, he is a Firefighter. No, he isn’t lying to kidnap him. He’s not wearing a uniform because he had surgery and has to recover fully before getting back to work. _Finally, the boy decided that Buck is worthy of his trust and explained that he’s on a field trip with his school, but he stayed behind when he noticed a lonely dog he wanted to pet. And when he turned around, his class was gone._

_They sat on the nearest bench, to have a big field of vision and to be able to spot the boy’s teacher and his friends._ How hard can it be to find a group of kids running around? _Christopher left his crutches and stood up, looking at the ocean, while Buck sat on the bench, grabbing the back of the boy’s t-shirt for safety and looking around for his class._

_They talked, Christopher happily oversharing that he also had surgery, three times even and that his dad is_ also _a Firefighter, and asking Buck about him and his family._

_When the boy fell quiet, Buck turned his head to look at him, but instead, his gaze fell below the Pier, noticing the lack of water. “Where did all the water go?” Chris asked, and seeing the huge wave coming towards them, Buck grabbed the boy and started running._

_A sound of the alarm rung through the dock and everyone understood the emergency, starting running to safety._

_Buck hid Christopher in a game booth and jumped there himself, just before the wave took over the Pier. He felt when the water hit him and was pretty sure that it made bruises on his body, but he didn’t have time to think about it, because he felt himself drowning underwater and he struggled to get back to the surface as more water was coming._

_As soon as he won with the wave and took a big, shaky breath above the water, he started looking around for Christopher, yelling his name. Maybe he met the boy not even half an hour ago, but he won’t let the little epitome of happiness get hurt. Natural disasters be damned._

_After desperate shouts that nearly tore his throat, he noticed the boy, clinging to the pole like a lifeline and yelling back for_ Bucky _. The man tried to swim to the boy, not even fully registering every smaller wave of water that hit him. He had his eyes locked on Christopher and the only thing that mattered was getting close to him and then taking him somewhere safer. Buck tried to grab the boy’s hand but the water was pulling him and when Chris let go of the lamp post he was clinging to and Buck noticed him falling into the water, he felt a new dose of adrenaline kicking in._

_Somehow, he was able to swim closer to the boy and catch him, holding him tightly as if he just reunited with his own son, while Chris also wrapped his arms around Buck. They managed to get to a fire truck that was standing there, and Buck put Christopher on top of the truck, then avoiding a boat that almost hit him, and finally climbing next to the little guy. They were stranded but it was above the water. Somehow safer._

_Buck honestly has no idea how long they spent there. They just stayed put, kept talking. Christopher was still smiling widely, and it would be an understatement if Buck said that he was impressed by this young boy._

_When Buck noticed more people needing help, he was torn between staying close to Christopher and helping them, but Chris was safe on a top of the fire truck and Buck was a Firefighter, he couldn’t just let those people struggle in the water and wait for their deaths in case another tsunami wave came. He told the boy his plans, reassuring him that he’s coming back, and dived into the water._

_He helped about a dozen people get onto the top of the truck, using the hose from that same fire truck, and then climbed there back himself. He sat next to Christopher again, and had the boy’s arms wrapped around his chest immediately. “I want my Daddy.” whispered Chris, and Buck’s heart broke right then and there. But he couldn’t do much at that moment, he just threw an arm around the boy’s shoulders and pulled him closer, assuring him that they will look for him as soon as it’s safe to do so._

Just recalling those moments causes a shiver to run down Buck’s spine, so he shakes his head to clear his thoughts, but does it gently, not to wake Christopher up. The kid’s been through enough that day, he deserves to at least sleep in peace until his father finds him.

Buck doesn’t have anything better than _thinking_ to do though, so he just lies on the bed and looks the Latino Firefighter up and down. Buck’s not gonna lie, he’s hot and if this was a man he met in his Buck 1.0 phase in a bar, he’d totally hit on him.

He looks a bit like a mess, in this wet uniform, with sweat dripping off of his forehead, and his short hair that managed to still look soft and somehow stick in three different directions. There’s stubble on his tired face that fits really well with his facial features, and Buck is sure that Carla would praise him for this perfect bone structure. He has bulky, dry, and muscular silhouette and Buck wouldn’t mind if he needed to take the wet uniform shirt off.

He’s looking at the little boy with red hair who sits on one of the bunk beds, right next to his mom and keeps coughing every once in a while. The man answers his friend something, only half-interested, while he tilts his head, still watching the boy. 

Buck knows that the kid’s name is Kyle, overheard his mom talking to him because he and Christopher are just two beds away from the redhead. The Firefighter narrows his eyes, not listening to whatever his blonde friend is telling him, and when Kyle coughs louder, he moves, a bit hesitant at first.

“Kyle, what’s wrong?” the boy’s mom asks as she gently lies a hand on his back, while he keeps his head low.

Then, the Latino moves faster. “He’s drowning!” he yells, reaching for a struggling boy, and Buck believes him instantly and wants to jump in and help him, but he’s injured, _he’s a patient_ , and most importantly – he has Christopher sleeping on him, so he just stays put and trusts the Firefighter to handle it. 

“What?” asks the mother, surprised, and most likely terrified, and most of the people turn their heads to the boy in distress. 

The man doesn’t answer, he just grabs the kid carefully and lies him down on the floor on his right side, having probably all eyes on him at this point. He takes a small flashlight out of his pocket and checks the boy’s mouth, then quickly reaching there and putting his fingers in his mouth, while the boy’s still drowning and has trouble breathing.

“What’s in his mouth?” the scared mother asks, but the Latino still doesn’t say anything. 

“Oh my God!” adds the woman, when the Firefighter pulls out a leaf and throws it away, still holding the boy’s face in his right hand, so he could spit out the water and it wouldn’t go back to his lungs. Then, he looks around and when something catches his eyes, he moves, still on his knees. He reaches for a bottle of oxygen that was standing near one of the beds and gets back to the boy.

“Kyle, baby, I’m here.” the mother assures her son, rubbing his back with her palm and kneeling over him. 

“Short breaths, Kyle.” the Firefighter finally speaks up. His voice calm and steady to calm down the boy rather than make him more scared than he already must be. The man covers the boy’s nose and mouth with an oxygen mask to help him breathe. “Nice and easy.” he adds, voice still stoic and he motions to the medical staff that gathered around to pass him a transport stretcher trolley for the kid. “Nice and easy.” he repeats peacefully.

A nurse Buck saw earlier rolls up the stretcher trolley, while the doctor that gave Buck his dopamine drip walks closer to the Firefighter and kneels next to Kyle. “All right, on three.” orders the Latino, as if it was his ED. “One, two, three.” the two men pick the boy up, transporting him to the trolley and lying him on the stretcher carefully. 

“Get him to X-ray.” orders his staff the doctor, while the brunet fixes the kid’s position, so he’d lie on his right side again. “See which pulmonary specialist is available.” adds the doc, and the staff takes the boy away for the exam. 

“Thank you!” Kyle’s mother thanks the Firefighter, and he only nods at her in acknowledgment, following the young boy with his gaze.

The man’s lady friend with broken ribs takes two steps closer to him, “Delayed secondary drowning. I've never seen one of those. Good catch.” she says, sounding impressed and Buck’s not surprised – he’s impressed himself. Delayed secondary drowning is extremely rare but can be fatal if you overlook the symptoms. The kid was lucky that this Firefighter noticed him.

The man sighs in relief and once again only slightly nods, not responding, and acting like he didn’t just save that young boy’s life. Like for him it’s obvious to catch something like that and to save the patient. 

“Are you Paramedic?” asks the doctor, coming back to the Latino.

“No, but I was a medic in the service.” answers the man and now it makes sense. His attitude and his demeanor, add this with most likely Texas and it screams _Army_. 

The doc seems relieved at hearing that answer. “In case you couldn't tell, we are severely shorthanded.” he says, looking around a bit, before settling back on the brunet’s eyes. “Any chance that you could–”

“Yeah, sure.” answers the Firefighter, before the doctor can even finish his question. “Just point me where to wash up.” he continues and the man in a white coat gestures him into the direction. “Sorry, looks like you're not getting rid of me anytime soon.” he adds to his friend, and he _almost_ smiles before walking away, and Buck would like to see a full smile on his face please.

Christopher moves in Buck’s arms, burying his small body deeper in the man’s chest, and Buck fixes the thermal blanket around the boy, wrapping it more securely.

He looks down at the mop of brown locks again and, once again, his thoughts escape back to the top of the fire truck.

_Christopher, Buck, and about a dozen strangers sat there, looking around them, still being able to see the ocean that attacked them in the distance._

_Fortunately, Buck and the boy were playing_ ‘I spy…’ _game when the water brought dead bodies closer to them, so he was able to turn the boy’s head away from the terrifying scenery and distract him a bit._

 _But the kid was doing great on his own anyway, still smiling widely, happily babbling about a movie that Buck didn’t see, but in Chris’ opinion_ should _, and reassuring the man that they’re gonna be okay because Christopher’s dad is a hero and he will find them and save them. It was adorable, really, the boy’s blind trust in his father and feeling safer thanks to him even despite the fact that the man wasn’t there physically. He must’ve done a great job raising the kid._ And as a single father _, because Christopher overshared that part of his life as well._

_Then, Buck noticed the search and rescue LAFD boats. He sighed in relief and smiled widely when he realized that it’s 118. Bobby scolded him for being at the Pier during the tsunami and getting himself in danger again_ as if he could control a natural disaster, _and then all Firefighters helped people from the top of the truck move safely onto the boat._

_Buck was the last one and because of that so was Christopher, because he refused to let go of_ Bucky _. The man was kind of glad that the boy wanted to stick to him, because he was calmer himself knowing that Chris was safe in his arms and it would stress him out to let the boy out of his sight unless it was reuniting him with his father._

_The Firefighters transported everyone to the VA Hospital, and after Bobby promised to look around for Chris’ dad – Eddie Diaz, they left to get back to help out at the Pier, or rather what’s left of it._

Buck isn’t sure how long he’s sitting on the bunk bed now, but it’s gotten darker around the pseudo-ED room and there’s more light bulbs lit.

Christopher’s hair dried by itself. It’s not wet anymore but it seems to have knotted because of the salts in ocean water. Buck must’ve gotten lost in his head for quite some time.

“Don’t tell me to calm down!” Buck’s attention once again goes to the brunet Firefighter who saved Kyle. The man seems pissed and worried. He talks with someone on the phone and tries to keep his voice quiet, but he still managed to yell through the whisper. 

“¡Por el amor de Dios! My son is out there, _somewhere_.” he explains through gritted teeth to whoever is on the other side of the phone call. It’s an angry whisper. He runs a hand through his hair, sighing and trying to calm down, before continuing. “And this whole time I thought he was safe.” it’s not really the man’s fault, but Buck can understand his thinking. He gets why the man is so worried, even though he isn’t a father himself, and he unconsciously rubs Chris’ back with his right palm. “I should’ve been looking for him _right now_.” the Latino raises his voice a bit, most likely not even aware of that, while he emphasizes two last words of his sentence, and his voice wakes Christopher up.

The boy starts moving in Buck’s arms, and he rubs his eyes to wake himself up more. “Daddy?” he asks, still drowsy. 

And Buck is upset at the hot guy that he woke Chris up while his father still isn’t here. He’s about to tell the boy that his dad is on his way, that he can still close his eyes and catch some more sleep. But the kid is, _still half-asleep_ , fighting his way out of the thermal blanket to be more comfortable looking around, and the Firefighter ignores his phone that he must’ve lowered down when Buck turned to Chris, and he has his eyes locked on the boy.

“Christopher?” he asks. Something in his voice saying that he’s scared he’s gonna get a negative answer.

“Daddy!” yells happily the little one and he’s wide awake immediately, with new strength to get up and reach for his dad.

The man – Eddie Diaz, apparently – is closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye and reaches back to the boy before Buck can even fully register what’s going on.

The hot Latino Firefighter is Chris’ dad. 

The ex-Army Medic who saved Kyle is Chris’ dad.

He was here the _whole_ time, just a few feet away from his sleeping son. 

“Christopher.” The man grabs Christopher under his arms and picks him up, placing him safely on his hip and hugging him tightly, while the boy wraps his hands around the back of his father’s neck and leans on his chest. “You’re okay, mijo. Estoy aquí. Está bien. Everything’s alright. Ahora estás a salvo.” the brunet keeps muttering, but it seems like he’s reassuring himself more than his son. 

The Latino places a kiss to the top of Chris’ hair and then leans away slightly to take a look at his face. “You’re alright, ricitos?”

The boy nods eagerly, wearing a wide smile again, and his father smiles back at him. And, oh God– he really does look beautiful with a soft smile on his face. “Bucky saved me!” announces Chris, so Buck smiles himself when Diaz looks at him, and he gets up from the bunk bed, walking those two small steps to the man and his son.

“Nah. That was all you, buddy.” Buck says to the boy and his smile only grows when the little one giggles in response and buries his head in his dad’s chest. “Buck.” he introduces himself, holding his hand out to the brunet.

“Eddie.” the man answers, shaking his hand, and when they part, he lies his palm back on his son’s back, rubbing it gently. “Listen, Buck–“ he sounds like he tries the nickname out, the sound of it. “I can’t thank you enough. My Captain explained to me what happened, and I– I don’t even want to think what would’ve happened if you weren’t there–“ Eddie cuts himself mid-sentence, but it doesn’t sound like he’s done, so Buck just waits, while the brunet takes a deep breath to calm himself down again. “I owe you my life, really.” he says, his eyes deadly serious. 

“You got a good kid, he was really brave.”

“I don’t know how I’m gonna repay you.” Eddie shakes his head and Buck doesn’t think before he opens his mouth.

“You can invite me for a beer and pizza.” he answers, taking his shot when he sees it. He has to get back to dating _someday_ , and who would be better than Eddie? No one Buck knows, really.

The guy is a Firefighter and used to be an Army Medic, so he’s not stupid. He looks _really_ fine, and he’s got the most adorable kid Buck has ever met. (And Buck knows that he’s single. _T_ _hank you, Chris_.)

Except he doesn’t know if he’s into guys. If he’d be into _Buck_ , and when Eddie doesn’t say anything for the first two seconds Buck’s mind already wants to panic and take it back, laugh it off maybe.

But then Christopher jumps in. “Yes! Bucky has to come and watch Finding Nemo with us, Dad.” the boy says, pulling away from his father a bit, just to look at his face. “He watched Dory, but not Nemo.” Chris adds, sounding almost offended, and he’s also frowning.

“Well, we can’t have that, now, can we?” answers Eddie and he looks up at Buck, smirking.

“What can I say? Never had the right company.” Buck shrugs playfully, seeing that Eddie isn’t just agreeing to it for the sake of his son, but seems genuinely interested in meeting again.

“Can Bucky watch with us?”

“Sure, mi hijo. We can set you two for a playdate.” answers amused Eddie, and Buck almost scoffs offended, but when he remembers that Eddie will be there as their chaperone – he’s in.

* * *

learn spanish w/me; 

por el amor de dios - for god’s/fuck’s sake

estoy aquí - i’m here

está bien - all right / it’s good

ahora estás a salvo - you’re safe now

ricitos - nickname that basically means ‘small curls’ 

mijo (short for ‘mi hijo’) - my son

**Author's Note:**

> i loved every second of dragging away the moment when buck would realize that this hot latino firefighter is christopher’s dad, yes, thank you 
> 
> also, i created a series to store there all my buck/eddie one-shots (unrelated to each other!) so if you’re interested in more of my fics for this ship, go there
> 
> come yell at me on my tumblr: remi-briggs


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